1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an image forming system including an image forming apparatus such as a Multi-Functional Peripheral (MFP) and a technique related thereto.
2. Background Art
A technique for operating an image forming apparatus using an external terminal (remote control apparatus) is known.
For instance, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 05-122424 discloses a technique for directly transmitting data regarding an operation screen itself (e.g., bitmapped image data) from an image forming apparatus to an external terminal to display the operation screen on a display unit of the external terminal and transmitting and receiving information regarding an operational position in the operation screen (e.g., information regarding a pressed position) to receive operation input through the operation screen. This is a so-called remote control technique using remote connection.
There is also a technique that enables handwriting input, using an Input Method Editor (IME) (hereinafter also referred to as a “handwriting input IME”) for inputting characters by hand (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-67673). According to this technique, the handwriting input IME (also referred to as a “handwriting input application”) installed in a mobile terminal is activated so that a handwriting input screen, which is an input screen for the handwriting input IME, is displayed on a panel. A user is capable of inputting characters by hand through the handwriting input screen.
Incidentally, with the above-described technique for remotely controlling an image forming apparatus, a keyboard screen including a software keyboard may be used to input characters. Specifically, data of such keyboard screen itself (e.g., bitmapped image data) is transmitted from an image forming apparatus to an external terminal, and the keyboard screen is displayed on a display unit of the external terminal. Then, information regarding an operational position in the keyboard screen (e.g., information regarding a pressed position) is transmitted from the external terminal to the image forming apparatus so that the input of characters is received through the operation screen.
However, there are users who are not familiar with keyboard screen operations, and thus operability offered by the above technique is not necessarily sufficient.
In view of this, it is conceivable to apply a handwriting input application to the remote control technique. Use of a handwritten character recognition technique enables the user to input characters, using a handwriting input method. The user can thus input characters without using a keyboard.
However, the application of use of such a handwriting input application to all screens may rather reduce the convenience for the user. For example, in the case of inputting a four-digit numeric personal identification number, it is more convenient for the user to use a numeric keypad and press four buttons (corresponding to the four-digit number), rather than to use the handwriting input application to input four numbers (corresponding to the four-digit number) by hand.